Former police captain enters not guilty plea

Linn, 47, accused of possessing drugs

A former Twin Lakes police captain accused of illegally removing drugs from the department pleaded not guilty at a May 2 arraignment in Kenosha County Circuit Court.

Dennis Linn, bound over for trial on March 28, will next appear at a final pre-trial hearing on July 11 before Circuit Court Judge David Wilk.

Linn, 47, of the Village of Bloomfield in Walworth County, is charged with three counts of possession of narcotic drugs, party to a crime, stemming from allegations he illegally took prescription medication from the Twin Lakes Police Department’s drug take-back program in February.

He has been free on a $10,000 signature bond.

Linn, who voluntarily resigned on March 5, became the subject of a criminal and internal investigation after a colleague at the Twin Lakes Police Department became suspicious of his behavior around Feb. 11.

According to an affidavit in Walworth County, where his wife, Cheryl, faces charges, the colleague said Dennis entered her office and offered to help her with boxing medication.

As the two walked to the evidence room, Dennis Linn told his colleague about his wife’s recent issues with pain medication, indicating her doctor refused to prescribe more.

Before they started boxing the medicine, the investigator said she needed to leave the room to get more packing tape to seal the containers, but Dennis Linn became worried.

“Well, I wouldn’t leave me down here, I don’t want to be suspected of anything especially after I just told you about my wife,” the affidavit states.

As they processed the medication, the investigator observed Linn set a bottle aside and was unable to determine what he did with it, because she was filling the boxes and sealing them up.

After he left, the affidavit contends, the investigator found a bottle labeled oxycodone wrapped in a pink bag inside a trashcan they were using to dispose of excess waste.

The colleague, at the request of Twin Lakes Police Chief Adam Grosz, placed another officer’s body camera near the trashcan and departed the building.

The next day, Grosz contacted the state Department of Criminal Investigation, which led the investigation.

The investigator and a representative with the state DCI reviewed footage from the body camera the next day.

The video revealed Dennis Linn allegedly had removed some items from the trashcan and the audio indicated the sound of “pills rattling,” the affidavit states.

Cheryl Linn, who also was bound over for trial, faces charges of possession of narcotic drugs, with a party to a crime modifier, possession of THC along with possession of drug paraphernalia, according to a criminal complaint.

The Linns, who reside in the Village of Bloomfield, had their home searched by authorities on Feb. 13, when they found three empty prescription medication bottles not labeled for anyone living at the residence. Two of the three were for hydrocodone and the other was oxycodone. Both are narcotic pain relievers.

A short time later, according to the complaint against Cheryl Linn, Walworth County authorities stopped a vehicle she was driving in Lake Geneva.

The complaint contends Cheryl Linn had given a deputy a metal pill bottle with eight white pills identified as hydrocodone and another narcotic medication.

Cheryl Linn, who pleaded not guilty on April 3 in Walworth County, is scheduled for a May 16 status conference.

Zeke Wiedenfeld, of the Walworth County District Attorney’s Office, will serve as special prosecutor in both cases.